AISA CLASS AA FINALS: Lakeside uses no hitter, timely hitting to beat Autauga
Lakeside won the Class AA state baseball finals on Tuesday, sweeping Edgewood at Paterson Field. (Courtesy AISA)
By TIM GAYLE
It became a program for second chances, bringing together a hitter, a pitcher and a coach looking for a better opportunity.
On Tuesday, Lakeside School took the hitter, the pitcher and the coach, sprinkled in a few valuable teammates and turned it into a state championship in baseball.
It started with senior pitcher Colton Sampson, who came in and slammed the door on Edgewood Academy’s championship hopes. Twice.
Sampson, in his first year after transferring from Russell County High, pitched a no hitter in the first game, then came back to retire the final two batters in the second game to give the Chiefs a sweep of the Alabama Independent School Association’s Class AA championship series at Paterson Field on Tuesday afternoon.
“He’s got 192 strikeouts after today,” said first-year Lakeside coach Tony Rasmus. “That’s unbelievable in a high school season. He’s just been a rock star this year for us. That team is better than us at every position and we no-hit them. Go figure.”
Sampson struck out 12 in the first game, a 10-0 win that ended with the mercy rule in the sixth inning. He struck out five in a row and seven out of eight early in the game while the Chiefs opened up an 8-0 lead with five runs in the fourth.
“You’ve got to come out here and just have the mindset that you’re going to be the dog on the mound,” Sampson said. “Just try and blow it by them, show them who’s the alpha. Just be you, but it’s all glory to God.”
In the second game, Lakeside (25-23) trailed 8-2 but scored six runs in the fifth and again in the sixth to rally past the Wildcats (26-25). Sampson relieved Carson Scott in the seventh inning of a 14-9 victory after a wild pitch allowed a run to score. Sampson struck out the next batter, then retired the final batter on a fly out for the Chiefs’ first title since 2019.
“Sampson is really good when he’s on,” Edgewood coach Justin Jones said, “and he was on today. We still hit some balls, but they caught them.”
Rasmus, who rose to prominence after winning a state title in 2005 at Russell County, was accused in 2021 of assaulting one of his players. Though he was found not guilty of the charges, he was suspended from coaching duties by the school system superintendent and was thankful Lakeside administrators gave him a second chance by hiring him to serve as the Chiefs’ baseball coach.
One of the first pieces of the championship puzzle, in the coach’s mind, was finding a quality pitcher and he had the guy in mind.
“The thing about Colton is he came into our program years ago and we had a pitching coach named Logan Colvin that spent countless hours with him because he couldn’t throw a strike,” Rasmus said. “He was talented but couldn’t throw strikes so he really couldn’t pitch for us. Last year at Russell County, I think he lost nine or 10 games. This year, he came with me … and I want you to know 4 o’clock workouts, whatever, he hasn’t missed a thing. Everything you said do, he did it.”
The next piece of the puzzle was Taylor Morrow, a player who batted just .170 at Eufaula High a year ago and leads the Chiefs with a .519 batting average, including an astounding 74 stolen bases.
“He’s one of the best hitters I’ve ever coached,” Rasmus said. “I’ve had some good ones go to Alabama, I’ve had 19 drafted. I want you to know he’s one of the best players I’ve ever coached.”
The Wildcats have struggled the last two weeks of the season, but Edgewood coach Justin Jones deflected the talk about his team by praising the Chiefs.
“You always want to play your best baseball at the end of the season and Lakeside is playing their best ball right now,” Jones said. “We had our opportunities to win the ballgame and we didn’t capitalize on it.”
Entering the series, the Chiefs may have had some doubts going up against one of the state’s most accomplished baseball programs, but Sampson set the tone with his no hitter.
“Colton coming out here, against a team that’s far superior to us, and really shutting them down made them doubt themselves a little bit and made our young bunch believe they could do it,” Rasmus said. “He went out there and set the tone for our boys and for them.”
Sampson wasn’t really sure of his transfer decision earlier in the season, but it made perfect sense on Tuesday.
“At first, when we started playing, I was like, it’s going to be a rough ride, I don’t know if we’ve got a chance,” Sampson said. “Once we got into the playoffs, we just binded together, played as a team, played with heart. As soon as we made it to the second round, I knew we were going to win it.”
Lakeside was swept in a doubleheader by the Wildcats in late March, but the Chiefs are a different team these days.
“Now, we have this urgency to fight back when we’re down,” Morrow said. “Last week, we played Patrician and were down by six runs. We came back from that. That was crazy. Basically, the same thing again this time (in an 8-2 deficit to Edgewood). We’ve got some fight.”
Jones was disappointed the Wildcats fell short in their annual goal, but pleased with the overall performance of his team this season.
“I think, overall, it was a good season,” he said. “We accomplished a lot, getting back here like we wanted to, but fell a little short.
“Sometimes, the ball just doesn’t bounce your way. And that’s what it was today. We had some hits they caught and they had some that just blooped in. But that’s baseball and that’s why you play the game.”
Making the all-tournament team were Ethan Evans, Brock Whitt and Drew Allison of Edgewood, along with Morrow, Sampson, Carson Scott and Riley Givens of Lakeside.